Buff Scott Jr.
Sophomore
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2023
- Messages
- 238
- Reaction score
- 73
- Points
- 28
Churchitis And The Dumps
Down on churches and their divisive structures? So am I. Disgusted with contemporary religion? Me, too. Sick to the stomach with those religious leaders whose only god is money? I’m still with you. Nauseated with the hypocrisy of the clergy? We’re on the same channel. You see no hope for institutional religion, and you have lost all confidence in Western “Christianity?” Don’t feel badly, others agree. Would you like to see it all go away? So would I. Do you place modern-day religion in the same vein as crooked politics? We’re still on track. Do you believe the professional clergy—Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish—assume “spiritual” virtue and act reverently while wallowing in cunning devises and immorality? Amen! Do you see as much good in the world as you do in churches and cults? You’re right again.
In reality, religion and churches and cults cannot take us to heaven. Although some pockets of good can be found in most of the above, overall, they’re a total mess. To reach heaven, we need to develop and cultivate a strong, healthy relationship with a man called Jesus. A religious, churchy relationship may offer a few temporary merits, but it will not take us where our Creator is. Only the man Jesus is the answer, the key, and the “lifejacket.” Without Him, all is lost. About two thousand years ago, this man announced, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
This man Jesus either told the truth or He lied. If He lied, nothing He taught is trustworthy. If He told the truth, we had better cease placing our loyalty in churches, cults, tube evangelists, preachers, priests, and “elderships.” For when a man places his loyalty in any of the above, we have a “church member” on our hands, not a committed follower of Jesus.
In reality, religion and churches and cults cannot take us to heaven. Although some pockets of good can be found in most of the above, overall, they’re a total mess. To reach heaven, we need to develop and cultivate a strong, healthy relationship with a man called Jesus. A religious, churchy relationship may offer a few temporary merits, but it will not take us where our Creator is. Only the man Jesus is the answer, the key, and the “lifejacket.” Without Him, all is lost. About two thousand years ago, this man announced, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
This man Jesus either told the truth or He lied. If He lied, nothing He taught is trustworthy. If He told the truth, we had better cease placing our loyalty in churches, cults, tube evangelists, preachers, priests, and “elderships.” For when a man places his loyalty in any of the above, we have a “church member” on our hands, not a committed follower of Jesus.
Is It Important, Then, That Believers Meet With Other Believers?
Yes, for the purpose of mutually supporting and encouraging one another, whether in a living room or under the shade of the old apple tree. Believers are not compelled to meet in church structures. The early believers didn’t have them. God is everywhere! Worship for the committed believer is a 24-hour-a-day matter—not something we turn on and off like a water faucet.
Are Church Structures And Edifices Our Idols?
I have often said they are monuments that testify of our idolatry. A few readers—somehow—understood me as being opposed to meeting in any structure. The issue is not whether it’s right or wrong to meet somewhere. The issue is whether or not we have built church structures and edifices and set them apart—sanctified them—as holy articles or entities. I say we have. If I’m correct, we are as guilty of idolatry as were the children of Israel who erected Asherah poles as symbols of worship. God told Israel in no uncertain terms, “Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved [consecrated] stone in your land to bow down before it” (Lev. 26:1).
Protestants and Catholics have done just that! Catholics have not only set up “consecrated stones” in the form of church structures, but they have made idols and images and bow down to them. Protestants, on the other hand, have set up their elaborate edifices and crosses and view them as sanctuaries and revered designs. Oh, there may be a few exceptions, but the rule seems to be universal. There’s an old maxim, “Our heart is where our money is.” If we will but consider the hundreds of thousands of dollars—yea, even millions—that are spent on church structures, designs, religious inventions, and edifices, and compare that amount to the few dollars we spend on seeking and saving the lost and feeding the genuinely poor, we don’t need a professor to locate our hearts. If this isn’t idolatry, I’ve lost my ability to reason.
We fail to see that God no longer “lives in temples build by [human] hands” (Acts 17:24). His only sanctuary today is the believer’s heart (1 Cor. 3:16). But try telling the average pew-warmer this. He views his church edifice and its “sanctuary” as holy places, and feels that he must go there in order to worship and make contact with his God. However, his “sanctuary” is no holier than the building’s restrooms.
Protestants and Catholics have done just that! Catholics have not only set up “consecrated stones” in the form of church structures, but they have made idols and images and bow down to them. Protestants, on the other hand, have set up their elaborate edifices and crosses and view them as sanctuaries and revered designs. Oh, there may be a few exceptions, but the rule seems to be universal. There’s an old maxim, “Our heart is where our money is.” If we will but consider the hundreds of thousands of dollars—yea, even millions—that are spent on church structures, designs, religious inventions, and edifices, and compare that amount to the few dollars we spend on seeking and saving the lost and feeding the genuinely poor, we don’t need a professor to locate our hearts. If this isn’t idolatry, I’ve lost my ability to reason.
We fail to see that God no longer “lives in temples build by [human] hands” (Acts 17:24). His only sanctuary today is the believer’s heart (1 Cor. 3:16). But try telling the average pew-warmer this. He views his church edifice and its “sanctuary” as holy places, and feels that he must go there in order to worship and make contact with his God. However, his “sanctuary” is no holier than the building’s restrooms.
